Science Fair!

DOCUMENTATIONYou will document your scientific research in every step of the way. Your notes may be kept in a notebook or in a single digital editable document, like on Google Drive. Don't forget to take photos along the way!

Each of the following sections should be at least one page in your notebook!

BACKGROUND RESEARCHBackground research is necessary so that you know how to design and understand your experiment. To make a background research plan — a roadmap of the research questions you need to answer — follow these steps:

Identify the keywords in the question for your science fair project. Brainstorm additional keywords and concepts.

Use a table with the "question words" (why, how, who, what, when, where) to generate research questions from your keywords. For example:What is the difference between a series and parallel circuit?When does a plant grow the most, during the day or night?Where is the focal point of a lens?How does a java applet work?Does a truss make a bridge stronger?Why are moths attracted to light?Which cleaning products kill the most bacteria? Throw out irrelevant questions.

Add to your background research plan a list of mathematical formulas or equations (if any) that you will need to describe the results of your experiment.

You should also plan to do background research on the history of similar experiments or inventions.

Network with other people with more experience than yourself: your mentors, parents, and teachers. Ask them: "What science concepts should I study to better understand my science fair project?" and "What area of science covers my project?" Better yet, ask even more specific questions.

HYPOTHESISA hypothesis is a tentative, testable answer to a scientific question. Once a scientist has a scientific question she is interested in, the scientist reads up to find out what is already known on the topic. Then she uses that information to form a tentative answer to her scientific question. Sometimes people refer to the tentative answer as "an educated guess." Keep in mind, though, that the hypothesis also has to be testable since the next step is to do an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis is right! ​A hypothesis leads to one or more predictions that can be tested by experimenting. ​Predictions often take the shape of "If ____then ____" statements, but do not have to. Predictions should include both an independent variable (the factor you change in an experiment) and a dependent variable (the factor you observe or measure in an experiment). A single hypothesis can lead to multiple predictions, but generally, one or two predictions is enough to tackle for a science fair project.​Source

DESIGNING AN EXPERIMENT​Scientific experiments have specific parts. In the design of your experiment, be sure to include the following details.